During the last half of July, Friends Club ends and the season of camps, summer school, and summer club begins. For me, this season isn't too draining, as I only have 2 camps (that are 1 night, 2 days long each), 5 days of summer school, and a few work days sprinkled in. Kris has a more active summer camp season, as he must go to 5 camps, has summer club, and helps out with Immersion summer school. During this time, we have different days off and different evenings where we don't sleep at home because of camp. It's a bit of a bummer, but not nearly as bad as when Kris was working swing shifts at BASF and we sometimes went weeks without sharing a day off.
For 3rd and 4th grade camp, we took our students 2 hours north to Iwate for an overnight adventure. The kids arrived at MeySen at 8 am and we played with them in the gym before boarding the bus. On the bus we played card games, othello (which the kids LOVE), and the kids taught me some fun hand games. When I took bus trips as a youth leader, I would often roam up and down the bus aisle to talk with different kids: I was quite surprised to find out that this is very much not allowed on school buses in Japan when driving on the highway. If the teachers took off their seat belts (yes, buses here have seat belts) and got up, we were quickly reprimanded in Japanese by the bus drivers. So unfortunately I didn't get to play games or talk with too many different students on the bus ride.
On the way, we stopped at a really neat park that had a small pirate ship for the kids to play on in a shallow (about 1-2 feet deep) man-made lake. There was also a raft for kids to pull themselves across the lake on and a big field for playing soccer. The kids favorite activity? Catching tiny frogs that were living in the lake. They ran round with plastic bags left over from lunch, catching as many little frogs as they could. Some were no bigger than my thumbnail. Whenever kids caught one, they ran to the nearest teacher to proudly show their catch! It was really fun to watch! Before we left, we of course had to make sure all the kids let their frogs go. I made sure to personally examine the bags to ensure they were empty; but just telling the kids that if they took the frogs it would kill them was threat enough haha.
At Kenji World, the indoor water park, students eagerly jumped into the wave pool -- so eagerly, in fact, that they failed to consider the water depth verses their ability to swim (or lack thereof). As a result, within the first ten minutes, several teachers (and a lifeguard) were pulling floundering eight-year-olds out of the deep end of the pool. As I watched Greg drag two coughing boys out of the deep end, I heard this conversation:
Greg: "What happened?"
Boy 1: "I went under the water. It was too deep."
Greg: "Do you know how to swim?"
Both Boys: "No!"
Greg: "Then maybe you shouldn't go out that far if you don't know how to swim."
Luckily, despite the children's lack of forward thinking, no one got hurt and everyone had fun. I had a great time playing in the wave pool, swimming through the lazy river, and going down slides with my kids. It was a great time to build relationships with them and laugh with them -- and it reminded me of being a youth leader :-)
After we finished at Kenji world, we drove to the youth center (which is kind of like a big youth hostel or ymca with less-fancy equipment but with a cafeteria where large groups can stay for short periods of time). After getting kids and their luggage into the correct rooms (and distilling conflicts about who would room with whom), we played outside with the kids. They could choose to play soccer, softball, or kickball. I played kickball: I found it hilarious how the 4th grade girls on the team were so much like me in gym class (that is to say more interested in talking than being physically active; and avoiding the extra effort of running, catching, or throwing the ball). But the other teachers and I used extra enthusiasm and humor to get the kids into the game. I think maybe we had more fun playing kickball than the kids!
After games, we had dinner in the cafeteria. It was set up buffet-style (which is called "viking" here in Japan). One of my kids drank so much milk and showed all the other kids where to get milk, so I started calling him the milk man. He LOVED this and though it was so funny. (I love how 3rd graders laugh so easily at the corny jokes I make -- I feel like a female Brian Regan!)
After dinner, we sat around a HUGE campfire, sang songs, and roasted marshmallows. I was pretty sure that some of the 3rd graders were going to get third degree burns with how close the tried to get to the fire, no matter what I said or how many times I ushered them away from the flames. One boy (the "Milk Man") made me a marshmallow, and when I told him it was the best marshmallow I had eaten all night, he got so excited and jumped up and down with pride. I LOVED that moment because this is the boy who often gets sidetracked in class and needs to be reminded to stay on task or to work hard. I enjoyed being able to have fun with him, to see him delighted, and to not have to worry about keeping him quiet or on task and could just let him be.
After the campfire, the kids showered and changed into pajamas. Then each teacher had a "Bible talk" with their classes. I got to share the gospel with students (assisted by stick-figure drawings that they found to be amusing) and give them a chance to pray to accept Christ into their lives. It was the BEST part of the trip and totally amazing! I don't know if my words had any impact or if the kids did pray to put their faith in Jesus, but I do believe that God was at work. And I'm so glad I had that opportunity!
Finally bed time came. The girls were sleeping in rooms with 4 beds each, so I went around to each room to say good night to the 3rd grade girls. When I was a youth leader, my good friend and co-worker, Jenna, taught me a great way of ending the day. Every night when we went to camp or were on a retreat, she tucked in each girl, told them good night, and said a short prayer for them. It was a great way to care for kids, give them comfort, and a gentle way of letting them know it really was time to sleep. So I decided I would do this with my 3rd grade girls.
 |
| One of the girls' rooms at the youth center. |
"Get into bed. It is time to go to sleep. I will tuck you in before I turn off the lights," I said.
"Tuck in? Mrs. Lauren, what's 'tuck in'?" one girl asked."It is when you go to bed and your mother or father pulls up the covers and says 'good night'," I answered.
"Huuuuuuh?" she exclaimed with confused look on her face.
"Do your parents tuck you in?" I asked.
"No!" she said.
At first I thought that perhaps just her parents didn't tuck her in, but I soon realized that being "tucked in" must be an American thing, because, each girl that I tucked thought it was hilarious. First, you must know that Japanese parents are not very "touchy " with their children (and parents and children don't often say "I love you."). So when I pulled covers up over the girls and tucked them into the covers, they were laughing. This laugh turned into a roar when I said, "Night, night, sleep tight". So by the time I was praying for them, I don't think they heard a single word. But it is a moment with my girls that I will never forget! :-)
The next day, after getting up at 6 am to wake the kids up at 6:30 am, we cleaned up (as you must do at youth centers) and ate breakfast. Then we headed to a field piled high with dried black lava, remnants of Mt. Iwate's eruption in 1719. There is a path through the huge field that we walked on. Even though huge chunks of rock were removed, it was still very difficult to walk through the field because of all the smaller stones.
 |
| Black lava and Mt. Iwate |
 |
| Me with some of the 3rd grade students |
Next we took the kids on a short hike on Mt. Iwate. These urban kiddos didn't seem to enjoy hiking too much. But I tried to encourage them along the way. After the hike, we rode 2 ski lifts to the top of one part of the mountain. Riding a ski lift in summer when there is no snow is kind of weird. I was nervous about how safe the kids would be on the ski lift, but the only mishap was that one boy's shoe fell off (because he was fooling around of course!). Luckily, it was close to the top of the first ski lift, so one of the support staff was able to get it for him.
 |
| Riding the ski lift down the mountain |
After that, we loaded back onto the bus and came home. By the time we got home I was EXHAUSTED. I showered, laid in bed, and didn't move for the rest of the night! It was a tiring couple days, but it was also a lot of fun. I really enjoy this job because I get to teach (which I really, really enjoy) and I get to build relationships with kids beyond the classroom (which was my favorite part of being a youth leader).
No comments:
Post a Comment